Birding with the Greener Gulfton Community

January 26, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

By Zoe Gapayao, Houston Audubon Community Outreach Manager Just outside the 610 Loop in southwest Houston, you’ll find the international community of Gulfton. About 58% of Gulfton residents were born outside of the United States, 75% of whom were born in Latin America. In the middle of the neighborhood, families regularly gather at Burnett Bayland […]

Satellite images give scientists a better understanding of habitat needs of Golden-crowned Sparrows

January 9, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

By Schyler Brown, Houston Audubon Conservation Specialist To better understand and protect our birds, we have to look at their movement through habitats across broad landscapes. Typically, scientists do this by counting birds and surveying plants where the birds occur, but this takes a lot of time and money, and usually only covers a small […]

Biologists measure habitat restoration success by listening to it!

November 29, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

By Schyler Brown, Houston Audubon Conservation Specialist As birders may know, counting birds is often done by sound as much as it is by sight. Furthermore, a good birding spot can be indicative of quality habitat for our wildlife. In a recent publication from Nature Communications, researchers used bioacoustics to measure habitat restoration. They collected bioacoustics […]

A one-legged Northern Cardinal named Legolas: A lesson in determination.

September 11, 2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

By Schyler Brown, Houston Audubon Conservation Specialist Dr. Kelsey Biles and I (Schyler Brown) run a bird banding station as part of the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (M.A.P.S) program. This program is a nationwide initiative to understand avian populations via bird banding and recapture data during the breeding season. To capture breeding birds, we […]